"No! No! No no no no no!" The young woman sitting on her bed shouted at her laptop, whose screen was brighter than she would have preferred it to be. "Why are you doing this to me?" She screamed, frustrated beyond anything, the pain in the back of her neck not helping her anger. She wanted to throw her laptop with a great force on the floor and break it, but cleaning it afterwards would pose a real challenge. Her laptop was a part of her, but it really got on her nerves sometimes.
The bridge of her nose was hurting because of wearing glasses for a really long time. She removed the black-coloured square-rimmed Titan glasses that left their mark on either side of her nose and placed them next to her on top of the book that she had been reading for motivation. She closed her eyes for a minute or so as she let the momentum of the situation take her entirely with it. She slowed her breathing to a minimum and enjoyed the peaceful silence of her room before a beeping sound on her right broke the tension that she was feeling.
She opened her eyes immediately, annoyed at the sudden disturbance, and turned her head towards the sound, realizing that it was nothing but the alarm on her phone. She picked it up and a sigh escaped her. "I should be sleeping," she told herself as well as the alarm clock that was definitely telling her so. "I know that I should. Well, I can't." She placed her phone back on the nightstand for it to continue charging.
The walls felt like they were closing in. It was difficult to breathe due to the pressure that she was feeling, almost hearing the disappointed voices in the room. She buried her face into the pillow that she had been hugging and screamed into it. That was one of the only things that she could do to calm her mind down. Sometimes, letting it all out was better than keeping it all in and suffering in silence. She turned her attention to her laptop that was threatening to wash into sleep mode. "Please work out." She begged with her hands joined together. "I need you to help me out here, buddy."
She massaged her temples by moving her fingers in the clockwise and the anti-clockwise direction, hoping that it would help. The region below her eyebrows were paining very badly - another reminder of her lack of slap. She tied her brunette hair into a bun, praying that it would help. When it didn't, she took a deep breath. "This is not working out."
Not getting any ideas, she walked out of her room and into the living room. The vintage yellow overhead lights that she switched on looked brighter to her tired eyes while she made herself a nice cup of coffee. Coffee fixed everything - that was her motto. No matter what went wrong in her life, coffee was never one of them.
She warmed her fingers on the outer surface of the mug and danced into the living room to open the curtains of the window that looked over the city, especially the Széchenyi Chain Bridge. The bridge looked beautiful when it was all lit up. She could feel the breeze that would be blowing outside even without having to open the windows. She didn't need to. She had lived in Budapest for a while and it was a second home to her. She knew the city like the back of her hand and could move around with a blindfold without faltering or straying from her path. It was definitely a home to her. She knew the people very well and felt safe and happy living in her single bedroom apartment. She imagined herself cycling over the bridge and looking down at the River Danube. It was one of her favourite spots in the entire city. She would go there before she made any big decision in her life.
Robin Hale snuggled herself on the couch and looked at the late night sky. The city was asleep unlike her. Looking at the moving clouds with beady eyes, a sudden calmness spread over her, but the thought of what was waiting for her back in her room made her groan.
She should have been writing her second novel. Her manager, who was also her best friend, had informed her that the publishers of her book Out of the Blue were asking for a second book because of the potential that it held. Her first book became famous despite what she had thought initially, but everything that she wrote felt wrong. She needed inspiration.
And who knew that she would find more than just inspiration in the days that followed?
⧪
In a different part of Budapest, a young man ran his fingers through his dark wavy hair as he couldn't bring himself to fall asleep. It was a few hours past midnight and he was staring at the ceiling in the dark, watching the lights from the passing vehicles outside make patterns. He remembered the imagination game that he used to play while trying to associate a character to the shapes on the ceiling because of the lights. He felt nostalgic and a wave of emotions hit him at once. As much as wanted it to happen, he couldn't become a little kid again.
Having not wanted to think about the worries of his life for a while, he groaned and gave up on sleep. He forced himself out of the comfort of his bed, his feet brushing against the cold surface of the wooden floor of his hotel room. He tried to brush the sleep out of his eyes as he walked to the washroom.
Switching the bright white light of the overhead lights inside the washroom, his sleepless eyes stung at first. After blinking quickly several times, he seemed to daze out of that state. He stared at himself in the mirror. His skin was pale, the only mark on his face being the scar over his right eyebrow. Dark circles threatened to creep under his eyes. "Why are you like this?" He knew that it wasn't right to talk to oneself while facing a mirror but he was too tired to think clearly. "Maybe you need something different in life."
He opened the medicine bag on the counter of the pedestal and pulled out the prescription that his psychologist had given him. It was not that long since he had started going for counseling and treatment, but even the course of six months felt like forever.
Thinking about what he was doing with his life, he held the dull prescription bottle in his hand. He wasn't doing very well compared to his colleagues in the film industry. He wondered whether it was worth continuing as an actor. How could he face everyone with everything that was running in his head? He wasn't even sure who he was anymore. Everything felt strange and different. He wondered whether he had made the right decision about joining acting school several years ago. He had taken part in school plays and college dramas before that, but he had never been serious about it until he saw an interview of his favourite actor in the entire world.
But wondering about it that night, he thought that maybe he should have finished his higher studies and then worked at some company all his life. Maybe he would have gotten married to a nice woman like his mother had been talking to him about. At least, he wouldn't have been fighting with his own mind.
People had always told him that he was a good actor but something was missing in his life. There was an emptiness; a void that he could feel but could never bring himself to talk about it. He didn't know what it was and that was exactly the problem. It had been with him most of his life but it had grown to nag him during silent moments in the past few months. He thought it was money and recognition, since he hadn't grown up seeing a lot of it in his life. He was brought up in a humble way and he was grateful to his parents for that. But like everyone else that he had the privilege of knowing, he always wondered what it would be like to have fame as a part of his life while trying to pursue his hobby, and that was the reason he chose to become an actor in the middle of his higher studies.
But even after acting in about ten movies, he wasn't entirely sure of what he wanted to become in life. He found it absolutely absurd when society expected others to know what they wanted to become in the future when they were only teenagers.
Life was unpredictable and you couldn't control it even if you wanted to.
He still felt that something was missing. And who knew that he would find this something in the days to follow?
He had dedicated fans all over the world and they were his only ray of hope. He tried venturing into new ideas like directing a short film and singing covers on Instagram. His fans were supportive as always and he was grateful to have them. Every year, he looked forward to Comic Cons, where he could meet and get to know them personally, even if that was only for a short while.
He walked over to the living room and opened the curtains wide. He stared at his own reflection for some time before admiring the gorgeous city that looked even more beautiful at night than it did during the day. He had taken a short tour of the city after meeting with the producers of an upcoming movie, who wanted him to act as the lead but of course, someone with more fame called in for the role and they were handed it on a silver platter.
Despite all their apologies for bringing him all the way over to Budapest, Ben Summers didn't regret the trip. He loved the city. He loved that there were very few people that knew him as an actor. He mingled with the crowd as if he was a tourist. It had been a while since he could do so but he was overcome with joy when a fan approached him and respectfully asked for a photograph with him.
The phone on the nightstands of Robin and Ben rang, more or less at the same time. "Who could that be?" They thought as they rushed to pick it up.